Puck of Pook's Hill

New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1906 Illustrated with four color plates by Arthur Rackham, including a frontispiece. First edition, first printing (published two months before the first UK edition). Publisher's green cloth, with boat illustration in blind to front board, lettered in gilt, and top edge gilt. Near fine, with clean and bright boards, light wear to spine ends, joints, and corners, and small marks to pp. 46-47 (lines 15-21 on both pages slightly affected). Overall, an excellent copy. In Puck of Pook's Hill, two children playing in the English countryside are approached by the magical fairy Puck from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Over the course of the summer, Puck introduces them to notable events and characters from British history, told through ten connected short stories. Interspersed between the stories are poems by Kipling, some of which were later selected by T.S. Eliot for inclusion in A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1941). Notably, this first American edition includes illustrations by the legendary book illustrator Arthur Rackham, whereas the first UK edition was illustrated by Harold R. Millar.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine. Illus. by Rackham, Arthur.